


In the Dark of the Night

by greygerbil



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-22
Updated: 2018-03-22
Packaged: 2019-04-06 13:17:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14057775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greygerbil/pseuds/greygerbil
Summary: When Yuuri invited Chris and Georgi over for a double date to watch some horror movies at Victor's uncle's place, he expected the terror to come mainly from the TV. Instead, the four find themselves looking for things that go bump in the night in an old crypt in the garden.





	In the Dark of the Night

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a Live and Love bing (mini-bang) in a team with dyeingdoll, who helped decide the genre and drew this [beautiful picture](https://dyeingdoll.tumblr.com/post/172140042647/little-comic-for-greygerbils-fic-in-the-dark-of) for the fic. We used the prompts "horror" and "garden" (though humour may have snuck in, too).

Yuuri glanced up at the high ceiling with it stucco borders as wood and stone settled with a quiet groan. The creaking and cracking of the old mansion working sent shivers down his spine, his nerves not calmed by the cold blue light from the television pouring into the dark living room, either. He now understood why Victor had immediately offered up his uncle’s house when Yuuri had suggested a horror movie for date night as the place for the viewing. He just knew how to set a stage, on the ice or off it.

From what Yuuri understood, Victor’s uncle seemed to be the only one in his family that he got along with; maybe the only one who liked Victor as a person rather than as a famous skater, too. However, he spent most of his time on the road for business and that left Victor with keys to a big, empty mansion on the outskirts of St. Petersburg.

The huge, wall-to-ceiling windows looking out towards the garden seemed to be a later-stage addition which matched badly with the Roman columns and big grey blocks from which the rest of the manor had been built. Despite the touch of modernity, the look out onto the pitch-dark grounds only made the house seem even more unsettling to Yuuri. One glass door was open to let in mild summer night air and it made Yuuri check again and again if the breeze was the only thing coming inside.

He pulled his attention back to the movie. _Ju-on_ was a teenage favourite of his that he knew pretty well by this point. Victor leaned against Yuuri’s shoulder, eyes trained on the TV screen, his soft silver hair tickling Yuuri’s throat. To Yuuri’s other side, not quite so close, sat Georgi, just as concentrated as Victor, a half-eaten piece of the Muraveinik cake he’d brought forgotten in his hand. Chris was sprawled out next to him on the other end of the sofa. He was doing a one-season stint with Yakov and had decided to fill his time off by wrapping Georgi tightly around his little finger. This arrangement had somehow worked out for a couple of months now and showed no signs of fading, so Yuuri had invited them over, despite being slightly worried about the things he might have to witness on a date night with Chris. However, though Chris’ hand was more resting between Georgi’s thighs than on it, he was otherwise behaving.

On screen, Ms. Murakami had just found blood on the stairs of her house. Even knowing the reveal of her undead daughter would come and what it looked like, Yuuri found himself happily tense with anticipation.

There was a muffled clatter outside. Yuuri jumped in his seat. Victor raised his head so quickly he knocked it against Yuuri’s jaw. Georgi dropped his cake onto Chris’ hand in his lap.

Chris was the first to move again as he put the piece of cake back on a plate on the table.

“Now everyone’s awake!” he said cheerfully. “Did the wind knock over the trashcans?”

Thoughtfully glancing towards the window front, Victor pondered this for a moment and then shook his head.

“No, that’s the other side of the house. The noises are probably coming from the crypt,” he said, apologetically cupping Yuuri’s face for the bump he’d given him.

“The _crypt_?” Yuuri repeated.

“Yes, this place has a family crypt. Apparently the former owners didn’t want to their dead to go on a public cemetery,” Victor answered.

“What would be rattling in the crypt?” Georgi asked, slowly, brushing crumbs off his jeans.

“I don’t know, but it makes noises sometimes,” Victor answered.

As if to prove Victor’s point, there was another muffled clanking coming from the garden. Yuuri suppressed a shudder, feeling as if cold fingers had gripped him.

“Well, should we take a look?” Chris asked with a shrug.

“I’m not going into a crypt at night,” Georgi answered sternly.

“Sounds a bit dangerous,” Victor agreed.

Chris stared at the two of them for a moment before he threw back his head and laughed.

“I thought it was a stereotype that Russians are superstitious.”

“I don’t want to go, either,” Yuuri chimed in quickly.

Perhaps he would have felt a bit more courageous if it hadn’t been for the bottle of vodka and the accompanying crate of beers they’d shared this evening, blurring reality and fantasy at fuzzy edges, but as it was, he did not want to confront a collection of old caskets.

“You don’t really believe in ghosts, do you, Georgi?” Chris asked, his arm resting on the back of the couch behind his boyfriend’s head.

Georgi crossed his arms over his chest.

“You don’t have to chance it by messing with a crypt,” he muttered, averting his gaze.

“Come on! Really?” Chris said, laughing again.

“Of course, we’ll sleep here tonight, so if we don’t look, we won’t know what’s going on,” Victor said, tapping his bottom lip with his forefinger as he frowned.

“Victor’s right. I’m going, I want to see this crypt, anyway. I’ve never been in one,” Chris said.

Yuuri saw Georgi watch his boyfriend spring to his feet as he looked on, nonplussed. After hesitating briefly, he also got up from the sofa.

“I won’t let you go alone,” he said, though it sounded like he really would have preferred to do just that. 

Grinning, Chris slung his arm around Georgi’s waist.

“That’s cute. Are you going to protect me from rogue skeletons?”

Georgi just glowered. Unlike his boyfriend, it did not seem that alcohol gave him him an adventurous streak.

“If they go, we should also take a look,” Victor said, glancing at Yuuri.

“Oh... should we?” Yuuri asked, not very enthusiastically. He was logically aware that there was probably nothing but a racoon down there, but that didn’t mean he wanted to pick through a burial vault tonight!

“It’ll be fine. I’m with you,” Victor said, smiling his heart-shaped smile as he pulled Yuuri off the couch.

They filed through the open door into the garden. Following Chris’ example, Yuuri found the brightest app on his phone, an empty digital notepad page, and they walked forward through the shrubbery with four bright smartphone squares lighting the way. The garden had a derelict and forgotten aura. According to Victor, his uncle liked plants to grow wild, so dog roses strangled the out-of-control privets and moss crawled over old stone statues of angels who had had their faces beaten away by the weather. With thorny vines pulling at their clothes, they made their way towards a stout building by the side of the house. It had a few small windows too high and dark to look into from which sounded another clatter now. Yuuri swallowed.

Chris stepped forward, grabbing the padlock hanging off the thick metal chain slung across the rust-coloured doors.

“Locked,” Chris said.

Yuuri dared hope this would be the end of their journey, but Victor took his uncle’s keychain from his pocket and searched through it until he had found a thick brass key. 

“This should be the one,” he said.

Chris took the keys and freed the chain, letting it rattle to the floor. Yuuri saw Georgi tense at the noise and Chris grinned at him as he took Georgi’s hand and put his other on the door, pushing it open.

“I promise you there’s no ghosts in th-”

The sentences ended in a startled yelp as something shot out of the crypt. Yuuri jumped backwards into Victor. Above them, bats dispersed into the night sky.

“I thought you weren’t superstitious,” Georgi said, after taking a deep breath, voice tight but not wholly devoid of sarcasm.

Yuuri sighed in relief and righted his glasses as Victor chuckled next to him. Clearing his throat, Chris gave the door a pointed shove.

“But those weren’t ghosts, were they?” he asked. “Let’s go.”

A steep staircase descended into the darkness. They raised their phones as the last light of the moon above faded behind them. The way downstairs was comprised of just a couple dozen steps, though it felt way, way too deep to Yuuri anyway. They emerged in a cramped room with a low ceiling. There were squares cut into the walls where the corpses had been entombed, names in Cyrillic letters carved beneath them. Two stone caskets stood free in the room and Yuuri wondered who they belonged to. Georgi tilted his phone towards them and, eyes widening, Yuuri saw that one of the stone lids laid askew on the casket as if something had crawled out of it.

“What...”

With a hoarse groan, something jumped at Yuuri from behind, its arms wrapping tight around his neck. Screaming, he clutched his phone, aiming it like a weapon to get the _thing_ off his back. Before he managed to hit it as he flailed around, though, the dark noise it made turned into Victor’s pearling laugh.

“Yuuri,” he said, stretching the vowels in his name. “The vampire’s got you!”

“Jesus Christ, Victor!”

At the other end of the crypt, Chris was letting go off Georgi’s arm, which he had clutched to. Yuuri’s heart slowed down only after a couple of stumbles.

“You guys,” Victor said, still laughing. “There are cats here, they’ve lived here for years.” He pointed his phone towards the space behind one of the stone caskets. Indeed, a cat was rolled up there, squinting into the light as her pupils turned to slits. “They come in through an old tunnel. Sometimes, they knock the old candelabras around.”

Yuuri didn’t know enough Russian to understand what Georgi told Victor in response, but by the tone of it, he guessed there were a few swear words involved. Victor’s laughter grew louder at the indignation written all over his rink-mate’s face.

“Wh-why is that one open?” Yuuri asked, still unable to keep the tremor out of his voice. Victor would pay for that one, he could be sure of that.

“There used to be people in there – the two late wives of the first owner, my uncle says. But apparently they brought them to a real cemetery at some point because the third wife didn’t want them in the crypt, especially not in the pole position.” Victor cocked his head. “That was two centuries ago, though.”

Chris chuckled breathlessly.

“Well played, Victor, I have to admit it,” he said.

“Can we leave now?” Georgi asked, crossly.

Yuuri very much agreed with that sentiment.

They ascended the stairs and Chris picked up the padlock again, chaining the doors shut behind them.

“I think you took a year off my life with that,” Yuuri complained quietly to Victor.

He made cooing noise like Yuuri was a cute animal. “I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

“What is that?”

Yuuri stopped to look where Georgi was pointing. A small light was on inside the house behind the windows, one they had not left on themselves. In the twilight stood the shadow of a slim woman, a veil draped over her head. She was holding something long and pointed – a knife, Yuuri realised.

“Is this another joke... ?”

But when Yuuri turned around to look at his boyfriend, he could see in his face that it wasn’t.

“One of the dead wives?” Georgi asked weakly.

“Well, that’s just... of course not,” Chris said, patting the small of Georgi’s back, but Yuuri saw the way his fingers tightened in the fabric of Georgi’s shirt after.

The thought had shot into Yuuri’s head as well. Wouldn’t the spirits of the former owner’s wives be angry they had been moved from their final resting place because of someone else’s jealousy? And now the four of them had traipsed around their old graves...

“It’s probably just someone who wandered in off the street,” Chris said, though he didn’t sound convinced. They were practically in the middle of nowhere, not exactly a place for homeless people or robbers to just hang around waiting for an open door.

“Maybe we should call the police,” Victor said, holding Yuuri’s hand.

Before they could device any further plans, the shadow turned her head and Yuuri froze as he realised she was looking straight at them. She moved towards the door and Victor squeezed his fingers painfully hard. Georgi moved shoulder to shoulder to Chris.

Before she stepped outside, the shadow extended a slender arm. The living room lights switched on. In the open door stood Mila, a colourful shawl draped fashionably over her hair. She was holding a kitchen knife and half of an apple.

“Hey!” she said. “Sorry we’re late. Boris’ training session went longer than expected and then we had to search this place for a while! It’s far out, isn’t it? But you said we could come right in through the garden door, Victor, remember?”

Victor stared at her.

“Boris... ?” he asked.

“Her new boyfriend. The speed skater,” Georgi said quietly. He slumped against Chris’ side for a second before regaining composure. Chris ran a hand over his face.

Understanding dawned in Victor’s expression.

“Oh, right. I invited you!”

“Did you forget that?” Mila rolled her eyes.

Yuuri had gotten used to Victor’s sieve of a brain, but he had the sudden urge to slap him over the back of the head which he dutifully suppressed. His pulse dared to slow down again.

Boris-the-speed-skater appeared out of a back room now.

“Evening! What are you guys doing outside?” he asked.

“Just showing them around the place,” Victor said, forcing his most handsome for-the-cameras smile.

They followed the new arrivals inside. Mila had placed a plate of apple slices on the table before the sofa next to Georgi’s cake. She fell down into an old armchair now.

“What were you watching?”

They looked between each other. Yuuri had a feeling that he wasn’t the only one who’d had enough near-heart attacks tonight.

“Nothing yet, really,” Victor said vaguely. “Just TV.”

“I brought a few action flicks,” Boris said helpfully.

“Wait, didn’t you want to watch some ghost movie?” Mila asked.

“No,” Chris said quickly, slapping his hand down on the eject button of the DVD player tray. “No more ghosts tonight.”


End file.
